One #2
The husband part had been Charlotte’s dream, not hers. What Constance longed for was the freedom of the valley. She was homesick, and if she didn’t get away from dreary Britain soon, she feared she would turn into a vain, silly creature like all of Madame Lavaliere’s other pupils.
To that end, Constance had been feverishly planning her escape ever since she’d learned that the Novus was leaving for New York from Edinburgh harbor.
It was a stroke of luck that the ship’s departure was timed around one of the monthly dances held in the academy’s sitting room.
The day of these dances, everyone was too preoccupied with themselves to care what anyone else was doing.
In the midst of all the preening and furniture moving, she hadn’t had any difficulty hiding a bundle of clothes under a shrub out in the garden.
As soon as everyone was involved with dancing and men and all the petty dramas of women, Constance was going to steal out the garden doors, grab her precious bundle of belongings, and head for Edinburgh.
The ship would depart in four days. In that timeframe, she could walk the distance to Edinburgh harbor if necessary.
She had no worry about paying her passage.
Charlotte’s new husband, the despicable but very wealthy Lord Phillip, was overly generous with her allowance.
Constance had no qualms about using it for this purpose.
After all, it was because of him she’d been sent to Madame Lavaliere’s.
The money was tied away in a scarf in her bundle.
But first she had to slip past Headmistress Hillary’s eagle eye.
She’d thought the task doable, until Captain Jonathon Ardmore, the man who sent half the hearts at Madame Lavaliere’s swooning, decided to fix his attentions upon her.
Really. The man was worse than a bloodhound in tracking her down. Constance had spent the past half hour attempting to avoid him and failing, since once again he was blocking her path.
“Captain, we have already danced,” she said, dropping her voice, hoping no one overheard his second request.
Of course, she knew better.
Off to her left, Lady Mary Alice Herrington was fuming. Captain Ardmore was hers, or so she’d told everyone before this evening’s event began. She was not taking his defection well, especially his defection to Constance.
And, in spite of her urgency to run away, Constance did take a measure of pleasure out of that. Lady Mary Alice needed to be knocked down a peg. She’d made Constance’s life miserable…that is, until Charlotte had married Lord Phillip.
Evil brother-in-law or not, that marriage had been a powerful tonic in Constance’s life.
Before it she’d been the butt of every nasty little jest or prank.
They’d laughed at her American accent and simple, straightforward ways.
But now she’d been raised to Lady Mary Alice’s rank and given all the privileges due the daughter of a wealthy and important family.
Of course, Constance wasn’t certain that she didn’t prefer her earlier ignoble state to the tender-hook scrutiny of the staff at Madame Lavaliere’s. Headmistress Hillary had doubled her lessons in deportment and behavior, admonishing her to work harder now that she was to make a brilliant match.
If that wasn’t enough to make a girl want to escape, Constance didn’t know what was. Especially if it meant being polite to the likes of Captain Ardmore.
“I defy all approvals and disapprovals,” Captain Ardmore declared.
He was in his late twenties, with sloped shoulders and a rangy build that reminded her of a scarecrow her neighbors back in the Ohio Valley had used.
“I could no more hold myself back from you than I could refrain from charging enemy cannons.”
Constance remembered having a very different reaction that moment when their eyes had met across the room.
After hearing Lady Mary Alice and the others carry on about him, hers had been one of disappointment.
She didn’t understand why he wore such a fussy wig, with its tight row of curls across his forehead.
In her opinion, any man worth her interest didn’t wear other men’s hair, or douse himself in scented water when he should be drinking it to sweeten stale breath instead.
A man who couldn’t use soap or tooth polish was not one she could enjoy.
She flipped open her fan, the movement a smooth twist of her wrist as drilled into her for hours.
“Certainly I am not as dangerous as a cannon,” she suggested, wondering what he would think if he knew she had a knife strapped to her right thigh.
She always wore it in spite of Headmistress Hillary’s reprimands.
“You are, where my heart is concerned,” he answered with so much false sincerity Constance had to stifle the urge to gag. It would have been unladylike.
Instead, she said, “Or could it be I am more attractive to you, dear captain, since my sister married the Lord Phillip Maddox and I am now a relation to the Duke of Colster?”
His eyes widened at her bluntness.
She continued, enjoying herself. “You see, we’ve met two other times and I never impressed you then.”
“I must have had other matters on my mind,” he murmured.
“My responsibilities at the garrison are quite rigorous—” He stopped at the eyebrow she raised over his excuse.
“Or I was a complete fool,” he amended before smiling, an expression that reminded her of a tinker pushing inferior goods for too high a price.
“Please, let me make amends for my slight now.” He reached for her gloved hand, boldly lifting it to his lips as he whispered, “I shall never be so remiss again.”
He was going to kiss her hand. Panic mixed with annoyance.
Constance had never been kissed by a man in any form. She had avoided it. Her first kiss was going to be special. She wasn’t going to waste this rite of passage on a hand peck by someone who irritated her.
Closing her fan with military precision, she rapped him on the head before his lips could touch her kid gloves.
The startled man pulled back.
“I beg your pardon, Captain,” she said, reclaiming her hand. “My fan slipped.”
“Why you vixen.” His sudden anger was a bit startling. “Do you think to embarrass me?”
“You are doing a perfectly acceptable job of that on your own,” she answered. Perhaps he intimidated other women, but not her.
His lips curved into a harsh smile. He took her arm by the elbow, pinching it tightly as he leaned close to say for her ears alone, “If you thought to set me off, you’re wrong. You were right earlier. I was interested in your family connections, but now it is you I find intriguing.”